1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bleaching compounds and bleaching compositions including such compounds. In addition to such compounds and compositions, the invention relates to methods of making and using such compounds and compositions.
2. Description of Related Art
Sodium hypochlorite is a highly effective cleaning, bleaching and sanitizing agent that is widely used in cleaning and sanitizing various hard and soft surfaces, in laundry care, etc. Various other chlorine bleach products are available, such as other hypochlorites (e.g., calcium hypochlorite, lithium hypochlorite, sodium hypochlorite phosphate adduct, etc.), isocyanuric acids, isocyanuric acid salts, hydantoins (e.g., dichlorohydantoins), chloroamines (e.g., trichloromelamine), and others. Such various chlorine bleach products exhibit various advantages and disadvantages with respect to formulation flexibility, odor (i.e., existing chlorine bleaches exhibit varying degrees of the distinctive “bleach” odor), clarity of solutions formulated with a given bleach product, stability, levels of available chlorine, chlorine yield, moisture sensitivity, and other criteria.
Generally, any given existing bleach product exhibits a mix of good characteristics with respect to some criteria, and poor characteristics with respect to other criteria. For example, a sodium hypochlorite phosphate adduct bleach product provides excellent solution clarity, and relatively good characteristics relative to formula flexibility, odor, and moisture sensitivity; however it is undesirable for many purposes such as laundry detergents because it contains phosphates. While other bleach products exhibit better characteristics with respect to one or more of stability, chlorine availability, formula flexibility, etc.; these products often exhibit poor characteristics with respect to other criteria. In other words, no existing bleach product provides excellent criteria across a wide range of criteria. As such, there exists a continuing need for improved chlorine bleach compositions.